


You Claw, You Fight, You Lose

by ladyhoneydarlinglove



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angry McCree, M/M, McGenji Week, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Prompt - Family, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 02:07:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8383687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyhoneydarlinglove/pseuds/ladyhoneydarlinglove
Summary: Genji pushes too far, and McCree cracks.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Flesh Without Blood by Grimes.

Not a day passes now where Genji does not feel consumed by bitterness, sorrow, rage, or some unholy combination of the three.

Out in the field, fighting against the family who left him for dead, Genji finds solace in the neat slice of his blades through flesh, and the mess of bodies he leaves in his wake. Exertion and exhaustion keep the worst of his emotions at bay, and he expresses little beyond his desire for vengeance. But in his idle time, usually spent at Overwatch’s Swiss Headquarters, Genji can no longer control the storm. It brews inside of him until he can no longer contain his vitriol, and then it explodes, tainting everything around him.

Most often people avoid him in the aftermath of a mission, familiar enough with his moods by now to stay away. Occasionally he receives pity from his outbursts, often from Dr. Ziegler or Captain Amari or Commander Morrison, and Genji only lashes out further in response. Pity is for the weak, and Genji would rather die all over again then consider himself such. Sometimes Genji faces down Commander Reyes, who never gives him more than curt words that always amount to, “We’ve all got shit to deal with,”. The callous response, only marginally better than pity, leaves Genji boiling with rage.

And then there’s McCree, who bears Genji’s tempers often with little more than a raised eyebrow and his infuriating drawl, neatly shutting down every barb and insult Genji hurls his way, if not throwing them back in his face. When Genji rages and howls, McCree remains steadfast, unwilling to bend in the wake of Genji’s storm. There is never pity from McCree; only sarcasm, frankness, and occasionally, a vague sort of annoyance. McCree treats Genji like he would anyone else, and in the wake of his new existence, Genji can’t ask for much more.

But he forgets, sometimes, that for all he puts up and dishes back, McCree is still only human.

Tonight Genji walks a dangerous edge, ranting and raving even as he watches McCree huff and roll his eyes, brows knitting together in frustration as his quips and retorts do little in the face of Genji’s anger. Vitriol spews from his mouth almost unbidden, weeks of pent up emotion pouring out like a tidal wave. “Do not pretend to understand me,” Genji spits as he storms down an empty hallway, McCree trailing not far behind.

A muscle twitches in McCree’s cheek, Genji watching as he works to unclench his jaw. “I’m not trying to pretend,” McCree snaps back. “All I’m sayin’ is the next time you go on one of your little tirades, don’t fuckin’ yell at everyone in your way. Ree didn’t say nothing except ask if you wanted to join the card game and you had to haul off and call her a bitch, like a goddamn asshole.”

Genji sneers, though the effect means little with his faceplate on, a fact that only spurs him further. “She should have known not to approach me.”

“Because you’re so easy to read,” McCree quips, and Genji rounds on him like lightning cracking open the sky.

“Do you think this a joke?” he yells, bitter satisfaction rolling through him when McCree takes a step back. “My condition? I am more machine than man now, and you would laugh and point at my shortcomings like I were an animal on display for your amusement!”

“Oh for—that ain’t what I meant and you know it!” McCree growls, clearly agitated. Genji can’t resist goading him further, to see how far he can push. If this time, he might make McCree crack.

“Was it not?” he snaps, pushing in McCree’s space, shoving a hand harshly against his chest. “What could you possibly know? You, with your cushy job and your little family, all so  _ happy _ to be together.”

He watches as McCree bristles, the muscle in his cheek twitching almost violently. “My cushy job?” he demands. “You think cleaning up after Overwatch and hiding all its dirty secret is  _ cushy _ ? I think you should go see Angela.” His lips form an ugly curl. “Sounds like you knocked a couple wires loose back in Hanamura.”

Genji scoffs. “Your work may be dirty, but Overwatch and Commander Reyes take care of you, do they not?” He sneers, lashing out more than he should, aiming to draw blood. “You have  _ never _ suffered, as I have, and you have never been  _ betrayed _ , and—”

McCree’s metal fist slams into his faceplate so fast Genji has no time to react. The blow surges through his whole body and Genji stumbles back, knocking something over with a crash as he hits the wall behind him, shock and pain rolling through him. Genji looks up, his vision reeling along with his head, but he can still make out McCree stalking towards him. “ _ Nani _ —”

McCree forces himself into Genji’s space, stepping so close the front of their bodies touch. He towers over Genji, who bites back an unbidden gasp as McCree grabs his chin and drags his chin upwards. Forced this close, Genji becomes acutely aware that McCree is at least a full head taller than he is, and his shoulders are so broad Genji can barely see around them. Anger rolls off McCree in waves, amplifying his presence, narrowing Genji’s whole world to furious man in front of him.

A shiver runs up his spine, and Genji swallows around a lump in his throat as he looks at McCree’s face, finding the sort of unholy fury he thought only he could muster.

“Do you know,” McCree says, voice low and laced with an ugly sort of anger, the kind that should belong to Genji. It leaves him faltering, eyes wide and alarmed behind his faceplate, “how I became part of Blackwatch?”

“I don’t—”

McCree’s fist slams into the wall right next to Genji’s head, plaster and drywall shattering on impact. Genji flinches. It’s wrong, to see McCree like this, nostrils flared and eyes narrowed and voice sharp as one of Genji’s blades. McCree isn’t supposed to get angry. McCree is supposed to let Genji’s bitterness and frustration wash over him like a wave, a constant point of solace in the tumultuous sea that has become Genji’s life. Genji is a howling wind, and McCree is the mountain, unyielding.

He wasn’t really supposed to crack.

“Answer the question,” McCree spits, vicious and almost cruel.

Genji struggles to force words out of his throat. “McCree—”

“Answer the fucking question!” McCree yells. Genji flinches again, McCree’s voice ringing violently in his ears.

“No,” he manages, voice barely more than a whisper.

McCree sneers. It twists his face into something Genji wants to rip off, for how wrong it looks. “Of course you fuckin’ don’t,” he almost laughs, the sound echoing through Genji’s head like a shriek. He finds himself on the verge of begging McCree to stop, but his voice won’t work, and all Genji can do is stand and try not to tremble as McCree steps back, regarding Genji as though he were a particularly vile insect.

“Listen, you arrogant piece of shit,” McCree snarls. “You wanna throw yourself a pity party every time we get back from a mission, that’s fine, because yeah, your situation sucks. You wanna tell yourself that no one understands what you’re going through, you go right ahead, because nobody does. But if you could pull your head out of your ass for one goddamn minute, you selfish fuckin’ son of a bitch,” he steps forward again, and Genji sinks farther back into the wall, “you’d know to never,  _ ever _ , tell me I don’t know what it’s like to struggle, or be betrayed.”

McCree steps back. Genji’s fingers flutter uselessly against the wall, and he can’t get his voice to obey his commands as McCree looks at him, his normally warm hazel eyes so sharp and cold it stings.

“I got into Blackwatch,” McCree explains, “because I had two brothers, and one of them is dead because the other sold us both out to the sting that would’ve landed my sorry seventeen year old ass in prison for life if Reyes hadn’t stepped in and offered to cut me a deal. How’s that for fuckin’ betrayal?”

Behind his faceplate, Genji’s jaw drops. The fright tingling along his spine bursts, writhing and coalescing into something so much worse.

“So all due respect,  _ Shimada-sama, _ ” McCree spits, venom lacing his every word, “you can haul off and go fuck yourself.”

McCree turns on his heel, storming down the hall, out of sight before Genji can stop him. He draws in a great, shuddering breath, eyes stinging as Genji sinks to the floor, working to regain control of himself. Guilt crawls along inside him, a painful bubbling over from the aching hollow in Genji’s chest. It seeps slow and heavy into his limbs, clawing its way up the back of his throat, until Genji thinks he may suffocate from the weight.

_ Stop it _ , he’d tried to yell as McCree’s anger had unfolded, sharp and cruel and so utterly wrong on his warm, friendly cowboy.  _ Please, stop it, stop it, this isn’t right, McCree, I’m _ —

“Sorry.”

The world spills unbidden from his lips, whisper soft and meaningless in the empty hallway.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this the loosest interpretation of family ever? Yes. Did I really just want to write McCree getting royally pissed at Genji? Also yes.
> 
> If you too enjoy cowboys and cyborgs destroying your life, hit me up on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ladyhoneylove) or [tumblr](http://ladyhoneydarlinglove.tumblr.com/).


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